The Chains of War
by DeusExMortis
Summary: An extended universe story set within the RWBY universe following a team of misfits known as Team NCRS.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Howdy Y'all! What this is is a sort of extended universe story covering the lives of a few teams of OCs. This is going to be a major fanfic so please keep coming back for more! :3**

 **This is a huge passion project of mine, so I will try to update on a weekly basis, but I am a little ADD so i may forget from time to time so please bear with me!**

 **I don't own the universe, all rights belong to Rooster Teeth.**

 **Please let me know what you guys think! I would love to get reviews, and I promise to try and respond to them!**

 **Also, I'd like to dedicate it to Monty, for creating us such a beautiful universe to experience and share in. Rest in Peace you beautiful human being.**

 **And now, without further interruption, let us begin! :D**

* * *

 **The Chains of War**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Misfits**

Cain Noctis was getting tired of all the bullshit. He sat in the corner of the tombstone-grey ruins that he and the rest of his team were currently resting in for their mission, rubbing his temples in a futile attempt to alleviate the throbbing pain that had begun to build up behind his gold-specked hazel eyes. His well-worn khaki cargo-jacket sat strewn about next to him, having been made into a partial pillow from an attempt at sleep. But it wasn't the current bitching between two of his other teammates, or the constant growling of the massive pack of Grimm patrolling outside that was really keeping him up. What was bothering him was simply the fact that he was getting an ever-increasing urge to punch the ever-lasting shit out of something.

Cain Noctis wasn't necessarily an angry person, he wasn't always as belligerent either. But he recognized a need to be, and as such, had become so over time. He normally stood at about five-foot-six-inches in height, with unkempt, shaggy, sun-bleached brown hair. He wore a carmine tank-top, durable but broken in black combat boots, and a pair of cargo pants that at one point had been black and in a camouflage pattern, but that had over the years weathered out to a light, splotchy grey with bleach spots on it. Wrapped around his arms and hands disappearing down his shirt was his weapon Ouroboros, long heavy chains where no specific end or beginning could be seen.

The two members of team NCRS (pronounced "Necros") who were currently engaged in a rather "heated" argument were Nadeshiko "Nadia" Kacela and Rebecca Rosso-Corsa.

Nadeshiko Kacela, who preferred the abbreviation "Nadia", was on the smaller side of the team, topping off her height at around five-foot-three. She had light pink eyes and long, rose gold hair with a simple thin braid around the sides of her head, and the majority of her hair loose but straight and well-kept. She was cool, calculating, and for the most part level headed (Cain noted however she did prove to have some rather serious superstitions). She was of a creamy complexion, and bore an ornate, hooded long-coat of pearlescent white with moonstone and opal detailing and a pale sapphire inlay. Her shirt was of similar make, and complimented further with silver pants that almost made her radiate with the lunar light. She also possessed a pair of large black boots covered in fasteners and added an extra two inches to her normal height, a simple pink-silver necklace, as well as an obsidian black archer's glove on her left arm. Her weapon, which almost always lay across her back was Brahmanda Celestia, a pink-silver and rose gold bow inlaid with rose quartz and a string that seemed to be made of moonlight itself. It was paired with an ornate quiver of similar make that was strapped to her back as well, and contained not only arrows, but a wide variety of dust infusion options to allow her variety in her attacks.

Rebecca Rosso-Corsa was almost the complete opposite of Nadia. Where Nadia tended to be reserved and rather quiet, Rebecca wanted to be loud and involved. When Nadia wanted to be practical and efficient, Rebecca wanted to be flashy and garish. Rebecca stood at about five-eight, with flowing onyx hair, bronze tan, hazelnut eyes, and almost too-perfect proportions. Her style bore a rather flaunty nature, with a small, low cut, sea-green-and-cream-striped top showing plenty of midriff and pale khaki shorts. She bore silver earrings with ornate dragon detailing, several bangles of silver, a few ornate silver rings and a large loose silver necklace. The weapon she bore was just as flashy, consisting of ornately carved, gunmetal-silver armoring covering her arms, shins and feet, and combined with a large metallic orb of similar make, akin in size to a medium to small ball.

The last member, who currently sat peacefully asleep, was Sky Vulcan. Sky was the smallest of the team, standing only at around four foot eleven. He had light-blue hair with white streaks, dark blue eyes, and a rather thin build. He usually bore a tie-dye shirt, blue jeans, a pair of rather immaculate white sneakers, and an iridescent pair of welding goggles on his forehead. Currently sitting in the corner was his weapon, Aitnaios' Hammer, a giant, metal backpack colored in pink, rainbows, and an almost embarrassing amount of stickers.

Cain had finally reached his limit on crap to deal with today and slammed his fist into the ground, the chains rattling and providing the initial boom with enough lasting oomph to get the two girls to quiet down and look in his direction. "Can we quit the bitching over who gets first watch already?" his voice was deep and intense, demanding attention. "Since you both won't quit your squabbling, just go ahead and go to sleep I'll keep watch." _It's not like I'm going to get any sleep anyway,_ he thought to himself. _Might as well do something useful._

With a slight cheer of glee, Rebecca did a little hop before trotting off with a "Thank you darling," in her usual flirtatious tone towards Cain. He shrugged her off with a grunt of contempt before walking over to the blown out window on their floor, about five stories up in the ruin. He slouched down into the framework and gazed out over the decimated city, seeing the forms of the Grimm out patrolling, but mainly gazing up towards the ever-so-bright stars that accompany the fractured moon.

The soft footsteps of Nadia as she approached didn't bug him. If anything they were calming as she made her way over to join him. "The stars are beautiful. You can see so many more of them out here than you can in the city," her voice holding its usual soft but melodious ring. Cain just stared into the sky, tracing the chains that wrapped his hands by memory. "They remind me of the past. Of the incident." _Of my weakness,_ is what he wanted to say, but he always hated that thought. Nadia gently hugged him from behind, as if sensing his thoughts. "The earth is what holds the past, stars can only hold the future." As she said her little piece of wisdom she stood up and made her way over to her cot. "Don't stay up too late," she called back, in a rather jokingly motherly way.

Cain chuckled to himself, waving her off as she went to bed before turning his gaze back out to the horizon. She was right. You could see more stars out in the wilds.

* * *

 **A/N: Wait a second, this looks like its just a chapter of introducing characters! Well, Yes it is. But mainly because it felt like a good stopping point. Gotta leave some room for you guys to speculate about all of them! :D**

 **Anyway, hope you all are getting hooked, maybe even hyped (hey I can dream, can't I?)**

 **Please leave a review! I love getting feedback on my writing whether its how I can improve to just stating hopes, speculations or questions! Hope you have a great day y'all!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey everyone I'm not dead! :D**

 **Just glad to say, that I enjoyed all of the support the first chapter recieved, and I'm sorry it took so long to submit the second chapter! Here's hoping that the update schedule gets a bit more regular with the upcoming weeks and such!**

 **Anyway, enough of me yapping, here's the newest chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Ch. 2: A Midnight's Dream**

The dreams.

It was the dreams that Cain still had trouble dealing with. The way that they made him re-live the events in the twisting, warping way that was his mind still trying to grasp at the straws that eluded it. The way things ran on end, running into each other, with no beginning and no end, just on replay. On a replay that endlessly danced their maddening dance.

His dreams.

He saw himself in the distance. The younger him. The him with a wide careless grin stretched across his face. Ouroborus sat upon his arms, the thin chainmail that used to be their form. His face still lean and unmarred by the harsh decisions that would be his to make. He ran around the old field and trees that were around his and Nadia's house. He ran around, the grayscale of the young girl, her face but a misty blur as they ran about the tree, his own form swirling about the tree at increasing speeds getting ever closer until he was the boy.

And then the scene changed.

The crash. It was still so vivid, still so sudden. The plane smoldering in wreckage about him, people screaming, crimson pools amid the flaming ruins that suddenly turned the beautiful wilds into this hell-scape. His own blood sat dripping down his eye, even the adults were injured beyond belief. He was one of the only few still able to stand.

Then he heard the growling. The nightmare black of the grimm descended upon the camp, the flames being choked out by their eldritch forms. Night quickly came upon the dreamland, the fractured moon being blotted out by the black clouds of the ashen smog that rose from the dead embers of the wreck. The vile forms of the grimm moved ever closer to his own form, slowly the others being consumed by the inky blackness and shapeless mass. Their forms began joining the faces of the grimm closing in on him, all screaming for help, crying out for a safety that wouldn't come.

The chains upon his arm began to slither out, their ends becoming knife-headed metal beasts whispering into the dark corners of his mind, shackling him, surrounding him in their metal forms as they chanted into his mind

 _DEVOUR the beasts that lay before you._

 _DEVOUR the world that laughs at you._

 _DEVOUR the you that cowers and shuns you._

 _DEVOUR._

 _DEVOUR._

 _DEVOUR._

Cain bolted awake to find himself in a cold sweat, his heart attempting to power the entirety of remnant with its incessant and frantic beating, his mouth dry as the long heaves began escaping as his body tried so desperately to grasp for breath.

Nadia got up from the campfire where she had sat, warming up a couple of cups of hot chocolate. She slowly made her way over to Cain and calmly and slowly handed one to him as he began to calm down. He glanced at it as she held it in the air, letting his mind return to the present, return from the nightmare he awoke from. He slowly took the cup and gave a small blow before taking a sip, burning his tongue a little bit on the sweet elixir.

"Another bad dream?" Nadia asked him, trying to calm him down. His only response was a small nod as he took another sip from the mug.

"What was it?"

He gave no response, just stared blankly at the wall before taking another sip.

"Was it the crash?"

She could see him visibly tense up at the mention of it. He never liked discussing it, but they had known each other before it, and she was one of the few people he found himself able to calmly discuss it with. It took him a second or two, but he eventually let out a sigh as he relaxed. "Yeah, it was the crash." He took another sip, obviously relying upon the familiar calmness associated with the liquid to ease himself out of the shock.

Nadia sat cross-legged next to him, still palming the untouched mug that lay within her own hands. She was glad he would confide in her, even if it was only what little he would, but it always tore her up, being unable to understand or have a hold on the events. She would never show it though. For him, she only gave a calm and well-meaning mask.

"You did what you had to. No one blames you for-"

"I ATE THEM, NADIA!" His outburst was sudden, his eyes meeting Nadia's with incredible focus, the intensity of the memories playing back behind the lenses. They held it for what felt like minutes before Cain turned back to look out at the ruins that lay thrown about them. No one spoke, the outburst quieting both of them, the only sounds coming from the crackling fire, and the sleeping of the other two members slightly disturbed, but quickly reconciled in the resulting peace.

When he spoke back up, it was much softer, almost coming across as apologetic with its tones. "I know no one blames me for what I did, but that doesn't make me any less of a monster." He shook his head, taking a big swig of the mug that lay in front of him. He didn't want to think about the crash anymore, it just made him angry. "So what about the mission? They sent us out here to do clean up and exterminate the massive pack of Grimm and the Goliaths that all seem to be making a path straight for the city. What's the plan for dealing with them?"

Nadia took a deep breath. She was kind of glad herself to be switching conversation topics, but the plans weren't as laid out as she would have liked, but they were their nonetheless. She took a small sip of her own lukewarm mug before beginning to lay out the plan for him.

"The advance team radioed in that the pack was bigger than we initially expected, and only seem to be acquiring more as they make their way forward. This kind of pack has been almost unheard of, nothing of its size being documented in modern history." She was glad for the intel, and could see Cain beginning to rub his chains. He had been doing that since he came back from the crash. She assumed it was some sort of self-coping mechanism whenever he knew he would have to fight. It didn't bother her, but it always was a good tell for her when he was worried.

"Hold on," She quickly said, setting down her mug and making a run to grab the tablet they brought with them, pulling up the map on it to show her partner. Pulling it up, she scrolled to a large opening on the edge of a forest, just beyond some hills and not too far out from the ruins they were currently at. On a good day, it might be a half day's walk.

"Me and you will be setting up here," She said, making a small circle at the edge of the clearing where there was a small inlet in the forest. "Sky and Rebecca will be off out of the way. Rebecca will essentially be his guard as he tries to take out as many as he can before they get near us." She circled a corner on top of the hills with a large view of the clearing where the pack would be running through. Cain's face twisted a bit as her comment came through. "Wait, what do you mean, 'before they get near us'?"

Nadia looked up at him, the eyes of their master strategist reflecting the calculations going on behind the scenes. "We are the last defense against these monsters. Worst case scenario, we get in on the fight. Team SLVR will be herding them in our direction-"

"SLVR is the advanced team?!"

"Now I know you don't like them…"

"Understatement of the century."

"…BUT they also have a rather impressive track record, and were the only willing participants."

Cain grimaced as he was still unhappy with her explanation, mentally going through his options. He didn't know if he had any possibility of going through with this and maintaining proper distance from the other team. He didn't want to deal with them at all, now or later down the line. Nadia, just chuckled as the obvious discomfort that crept its way across his face, happy that at least his mind was off of the nightmare.

"Like it or not, you'll have to deal with them sooner or later." She found it difficult to stifle her laughter as she began the topic of the other team with him, his faces always cracking her up. And he knew it too. He pulled his face farther into an even more exaggerated form of his disgust, causing his friend to begin cracking up to a point where the two could hear Rebecca beginning to stir in her sleep. Nadia quickly threw a pillow straight into Cain's face before getting a jokingly harsh but quiet tone with him. "Cut it out, you're going to make me wake them up!"

Their laughter died down, Nadia gazing into the cocoa that lay in front of her, Cain wiping a tear from his own eye. After a few seconds, he got up, stretched, and grabbed his pillow. "I think it's time that I…" he said, making a thumb point towards his stuff by the fire. Nadia stood up and gave a few quick nods as she tried to respond through sipping her cocoa. "Yes. Please. We don't need you grumpy in the morning. Go get some sleep." She rushed him off, giving a slight push on his back towards the campfire to rush him along towards a better sleep than the one he got, watching him slowly head off. Much like she did back before the crash.

The morning came, the sun just creeping out from beyond the line of the ruins. The grimm had long since made their way back to wherever their burrows lay, the group gathering up their things before making their way towards their key points. Sky stood slowly, slinging his giant backpack on with a slight, cutesy yawn and rubbed his eyes, still trying to fully wake up and be ready to go. Rebecca was standing by the edge, bouncing around, stretching, dribbling her ball, and shadow boxing, very much awake and ready to go. Nadia threw on her coat, making sure that nothing had been forgotten by any of the other members. Her voice rang loud and with the authority that established her at the leader of the team, "Alright Team NCRS! Are we ready to take our positions?"

Cain stomped out the last bits of the fire, twisting his boot in the embers like a used up cigarette. Bending down, he picked up the last smoldering coal and eyed it like one would a cup of coffee. He popped it up like a grape and opened his mouth, his jaw clamping down around it as it landed in, the blackish-red gleam of his semblance activating. He shook his head and stretched his neck before popping it. Now fully woken up, the small burst of fire energy giving him a good pulse of energy, the small embers of the coals now faintly glowing within the chains. He pounded his fists together, clearing his mind of distractions.

"Lets go."

* * *

 **A/N: Again, Thank you all for your reviews, I look forward to reading them!**

 **Jeitron: Thank you for the kind words! And SSHHHHH Spoilers! ;P**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I return after a massive break! I'm trying something new, so bear with me a bit and I'll explain more at the end!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Story Time**

Cain sat on one of the many chairs around the coffee table in the central room of the dorm room of Team NCRS. The bridge of his nose sat cradled in between his fingers as he tried to wrap his head around the stack of papers that sat in front of him. Across from him sat the fox-tailed faunus Rebecca, who was currently trying her best to look cute and innocent, while across the room Nadia sat on a couch facing the television screen, doing her best to cradle her sides as she laid there, rolling and laughing her insides out.

"Explain to me again what this is Rebecca."

"It's the field report you asked me to write over our last mission."

"No, it's not. A field report is, for the most part, a report of the facts. What I'm reading feels like a terribly cliché work of fiction."

"It's not _all_ fiction."

Cain sighed. "The names are about all that's left that's true. And why the fuck am I portrayed as some sort of edgelord? 'It was the dreams that Cain still had trouble with', I mean seriously, who the fuck thinks that is interesting? Yeah, I occasionally still have nightmares, but I'm not some PTSD stricken war vet."

A squeal of laughter erupted from the couch.

"I thought added a bit to your personal struggle," replied Rebecca, trying to sound as harmless as possible. She gave a slight exertion of her aura's semblance of _Charm_ towards Cain. His aura just passively ate away at her ambient energy, completely negating its effect. In reality, this ended up just pissing him off more as there was now the faint sound of cackling electricity and grinding teeth in low decibels of the room's ambient sound.

"Personal struggle? Really? And what exactly do you call this whole shipping thing between me and Nadia? Explain yourself on that one."

Rebecca stuck her tongue out at Cain. "For your information it's called Onyx Rose, and it's a rather popular ship among those of us at the school."

Another loud burst of laughter echoed from the couch, followed at the end by a snort. Cain groaned and rubbed his face. He couldn't tell if he was blushing or not, but regardless he was too worked up at the moment to even care or notice. "I swear Rebecca, you have less than ten seconds to explain yourself, before I blow up."

As Nadia lay laughing and shaking on the couch, and Rebecca sat across from Cain making puppy dog eyes, a voice called out from one of the side rooms over the sound of sparking metal and machinery. "Okay guys, you had your fun, now give Cain the real report."

Rebecca pouted and called back to the other room, "You don't always have to be a buzzkill Sky!" The only response was the return of the sounds of sparking metal. With a groan, Cain rubbed his eyes some more. "What did Sky mean, the _real_ report?"

Rebecca scrounged around for a bit and pulled out another stack of papers in a nice report cover and put them on the coffee table for Cain to read. Nadia, now recovering from her fit of laughter, had sat up and leaned over the back of the couch, wiping the tears from her eyes. Cain sat for a while staring at it, then back at the one he was holding, then back at it. He eventually slapped down the old stack he was holding, then picked up the new one, going over it intently as Rebecca and Nadia could be seen visibly leaning in, waiting for his reaction. As he reached the end, he gazed up from just over the top of the papers at them both.

"You guys are assholes, you know that?"

* * *

The story of how these four misfits met changes. Their story changes. Their world changes. But there are always constants. Their paths always intersect. They find themselves drawn to each other. Throughout all possibilities that lie, they always manage to find each other. They have lived a thousand lives, died a thousand unholy deaths. They have lived with each other, loved each other, and killed each other countless times. It should be noted however, that out of these countless timelines, there is one point that appears more than the others, one prime moment. It is not in all universes, for some had been shaped in such a way that it would prevent them from meeting in the prime method. However it should be noted that their tokens almost always find their way into their respective hands. In order to understand them, it would be best to show you the prime perspective. This event was their initiation into Beacon, the moment that out of all possibilities establishes them firmly as Team NCRS.

* * *

Cain found himself flying through the air just behind Nadia after they were launched off the cliff for their initiation into Beacon. All the instruction they had was to create a landing strategy. _Brilliant,_ Cain thought to himself. _Let me do that with nothing useful._ With a quick eye roll he saw Nadia and called out to her. As she turned her head around to see him, he tossed one of the weighted ends of his chains towards her. Catching it, she pulled him in close. "Suppose this makes us partners then, huh grease monkey?" He smiled at her as she took the weighted end in hand, and drew it upon her bow, her electromagnet glove and the bow stabilizing the end, and fired it off towards a tree. She focused her semblance of _Control_ on the weighted end, guiding it perfectly towards the thick end of one of the branches, as he exerted control over his own, _The Maw_. Sending it through the chain, the end opened up into a sort of toothy head, latching onto the branch. Using their momentum, Cain reeled them in and around the trunk of a tree in order to slow their descent. It was still rough, the pair stumbling a bit as their feet came into contact with the ground, but they would live. After gaining footing, Cain refocused his aura, and the head returned to normal as he rapidly reeled back the chains into the depths of his coat sleeve.

Looking around, the pair tried to make sense of which way they were supposed to go before deciding to head in the way they were initially launched. Walking through the forest, they eventually set upon the idea that talking might make the trip go a little faster, or at least one of them did. Nadia walked, seemingly without much of a care through the forest, the only thing stating otherwise was the bow sitting in her left hand. "So you just couldn't leave me to my own devices could you?" she asked, with a hint of humor and a dash of snark towards Cain. His response as he constantly scanned the surroundings for Grimm was cold, but had his own faint hint of humor in it. "Honestly, I was thinking your dad would kill me if I didn't keep an eye on you."

They each gave a bit of a chuckle before a rustling interrupted their thoughts. They both snapped up their weapons, Brahmanda Celestia shining in Nadia's hands, Ouroboros wound around Cain's limbs. They immediately threw themselves back to back as the rustling surrounded them, out jumping a pack of Beowolves. Their weapons at the ready they eyed the beasts that surrounded them. "Wanna see who gets the most kills?" Cain smiled at Nadia's challenge.

"You're on."

The next few minutes were a flurry of action. Nadia fired her metal needles and arrows into numerous Beowolves around her, Scoring headshot after headshot, the metal darts and poles all sticking out of the heads of the dissolving Grimm. Meanwhile, Cain was bounding between his own Grimm, his metal covered fists and feet chaining combinations between the beasts. His chains sprouted bladed ends as he stabbed them into various beasts, letting out enough slack to entangle multiple beasts at a time before throwing all of his aura into running across the chains, throwing up numerous moving teeth along their length, having them rapidly rip, chew and tear through the bodies of the beasts. The chains whirled and ground, the arrows flew and pierced, and in only the span of a couple minutes, the force of Grimm sat in pieces, dissolving into the petals that drifted on the wind. Nadia walked about retrieving her arrows and darts from the now mostly dissolved bodies. "I got 10 kills, what about you?" Turning around she looked at Cain. The numerous chains slowly clacked themselves back into his sleeves. He turned around, the drops of black ichor sat evaporating into a mist off of his clothes, the haze clearing from his eyes. A large, toothy smile spread across his lips as he stood among the mass of rapidly dissolving limbs. "25."

* * *

After a few more bouts with Grimm and much more walking, the duo came to an old stone ruin, upon which held a pedestal upon which sat a deck of cards sprawled out to draw from. The two approached and each drew their own card, and turned to reveal them. Turning them over, they eyed the cards that sat in their hands. Cain turned his around to see the Ace of Clubs, Nadia's revealing the Ace of Spades. With a simultaneous "Huh," the two heard a loud screaming increasing in volume from outside the stone ruins. Sticking out their heads, the screaming increased along with numerous loud bangs and the sounds of heavy impacts. After about 30 seconds, when the screaming was for sure heading straight for them, they saw a faunus emerge from the treeline, her fox tail trailing behind her as she booked it towards them. As the booms got louder, a massive Death Stalker came barreling out of the trees, and a rather small and colorful hunter was attempting to attack the behemoth with two, almost comically oversized, mechanical axes. After the few blows he managed to connect with glanced off leaving gashes in the bone-plates of the Grimm, it seemed to decide the pest had become enough of a problem to bat him away. The small, multicolored hunter went flying towards the other hunters, who were now all hiding within the ruins. With a quick pull, and a forced, and very stressful quiet from the other three holding down the twisting ball of rage that was their new companion, they did their best to hide out from the giant, and extremely deadly Grimm. After a while of hiding deep within the ruins, whether it was luck or some kind of divine providence, the Death Stalker seemed to get bored and wandered back off to whatever hole it had come from. After the thudding of its feet was definitely off and no longer audible, the group emerged from their hiding spot. The first thing that happened after emerging and releasing their now smallest companion was a suitable amount of rage from the rather small and colorful man, the massive temper at odds with his multicolor hair and childlike clothes and size.

"What the hell, I was about to take it!"

"You're welcome for keeping you from killing yourself," Nadia responded, with a bit of an eye roll as the kid walked over to retrieve his axes. With a small bit of effort, he hefted the rainbow and sticker adorned axes over his shoulders, and hit a few buttons on them as they combined and folded up into the much smaller size of a full hiker's backpack. Walking back over, he was still audibly mumbling to himself and complaining about how "people just don't understand art," and "How are his weapons supposed to get field tested if he's not allowed to fight the biggest thing he can find."

While this was going on with the smaller man, the faunus stayed behind and tried flirting with one of her new saviors. "Thank you so much for saving me Mister…?"

"Cain." He didn't know what it was, but something about the girl was making him pissy. He could have sworn he heard a faint crackling in the back of his head, and something about her eyes and aura seemed to be giving off a faint glow. The girl, meanwhile, was confused as to why her semblance wasn't working on him. It worked on everyone she had ever met, and this one anomaly confused her. "Isn't there some way I can thank you?"

Something about her was making Cain start to get a headache. He just ground his teeth and cradled his forehead. "You can get your card and we can get back to everyone else." As he said this, he started walking off, with Nadia telling him to hold up and following behind him. The faunus found herself somewhere between pouty and puzzled as she walked over to draw her card with the small ball of rage. As she pulled her card, she looked over the shoulder of the small boy to see his Ace of Diamonds before flipping hers to see an Ace of Hearts.

* * *

At the presentation of the teams, the four stood up at attention. Professor Ozpin stood, announcing the teams in the year's initiation assembly. "Nadeshiko Kacela, Cain Nacht, Rebecca Rosso-Corsa, Sky Vulcan. The four of you retrieved the Aces. From now on you shall be known as Team NCRS, led by Nadeshiko Kacela." As the board changed to show their pictures along with the abbreviation of NCRS for their team, Nadia seemed a bit taken back, her eyes seeming to water up. Cain stood a little taller, and placed a hand on her shoulder as the rest of the ceremony was finished. They had now become an official team.

* * *

Such was the prime origin. It is, it was, and it always shall be. And yet, it shall not, it never will, and has not ever occurred. Such is the multiverse. In a realm of infinite possibilities, while this origin holds claim to a majority of timelines, it does not hold all. But it will remain our root. In the grand tree we scour, seeing the many branches and many roots, this is the oldest of them all. It leads to their happiness, it leads to their despair. It is who they are, and how their soul yearns to be, and how our journey through their stories begins.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for making it all the way through! As I said, I'm going to explain the little change here. So what I plan to do with this, seeing as how I did take a massive break is plan to sort of explore more with the characters as I now have a bit more time on my hands to work on it, as well as inspiration to do so. Now here's where the interesting part comes in:**

 **As I mentioned in the story, I'm going to explore a bit of a multiverse type thing with this. Since I don't like having my characters interact with the main cast, I figured what I would do instead is open this up to public suggestion! While I will post things as I come up with them, maybe try to establish a core timeline to follow with them, I figured that in order to work on my writing on a more common standpoint, I would open up to you, the reader's, story ideas! If any of you would like to see me throw the characters into a situation for a short story or something interesting just give me a shout out and I'll throw them in!**

 **As always, thanks again for reading!**


End file.
